Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

rdf:langString Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

rdf:langString Democratic Republic of the Congo

rdf:langString Deforestation in the triple border of Angola, Congo and DRC. The dense moist forest in dark green is mostly at Angola's Cabinda enclave, from image center to upper left. In light green, deforestation, mostly along Chiloango River, crossing image NE to SW on Congo-DRC border, at image top, and Cabinda-DRC border below. Savanna-forest mosaic with extensive agriculture appears in orange and orangeish light green.

rdf:langString Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an environmental conflict of international importance. Most of the deforestation takes place in the Congo Basin, which holds the second largest rainforest of the world after the Amazon. Roughly fifty percent (154 million hectare) of the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin lies within the boundaries of the DRC. There are compounding causes underlying deforestation in the DRC. Forests are cleared for agricultural purposes by utilizing slash and burn techniques. Illegal logging, road development and city expansion are also among some of the causes for deforestation. Deforestation in the DRC has multiple negative consequences. It leads to biodiversity loss, soil erosion and contributes to climate change. The DRC is one of 17 megadiverse countries of the world, with a significant wildlife that is harmed by habitat loss. For example, 60% of the forest elephant population drops due to the loss of shelter caused by illegal logging. Since 1990 until 2015, the rate of deforestation in the DRC has remained constant at 0.20%, which equates to the loss of 311,000 hectares, or roughly 1,200 square miles, annually. Three reasons have been postulated as to why deforestation rates had remained relatively low: 1) the road network within the country has been gradually in decline making access to more remote areas more difficult; 2) political and regulatory changes have disincentivized investment in the country; and 3) agriculture has expanded outside of forest areas. While the rates of deforestation remained constant, wood removal (measured in cubic meters) continues to increase annually. Industrialized roundwood has increased from 3.05 million cubic meters in 1990 to 4.45 million cubic meters in 2010; fuelwood has increased from 44.2 million cubic meters to 75.44 million cubic meters annually in that same period. From 2015 to 2019 the rate of tree-felling in the Democratic Republic of Congo has doubled.

rdf:langString Fuelwood and charcoal collection, artisanal and small-scale logging, industrial logging, clearing for agriculture, and road construction.